It’s just as well that Jordan Palmer was cut Sunday because if the Bears' backup battle had come down to the final exhibition game in Cleveland, the loser was going to be forced to stay there.

Clausen was going to win the job because he’s the one who looked like an NFL quarterback. I wrote that after the first exhibition game against the Eagles, and even though Palmer caught up in the second practice game, he still couldn’t match Clausen’s arm strength and simply didn’t look as NFL-ready as Clausen, who has significantly more NFL experience.

By the end of the game in Seattle, it was clear who the choice should be. Clear to me, anyway. Clausen led a couple of scoring drives by mixing an arm that could execute the entire route tree and smarts to check into a better play.

Palmer had to waste a timeout coming out of a TV timeout. Palmer isn’t the one with the stronger arm. Palmer isn’t the one with the higher ceiling.

That’s the thing. For me, anyway. I feared Marc Trestman was going to pick Palmer because he had the higher floor. The safer floor. Palmer was more likely to take the checkdown. He was the checkdown champion this summer. He knows he doesn’t have the big arm like Clausen and Jay Cutler, so he doesn’t try to air it out.

That’s not the kind of quarterback I want coming in when Cutler suffers his annual injury. I want a guy who can blow the top off a defense the way Cutler can. Clearly, that was Clausen, not Palmer.

But earlier in the summer when asked about backup quarterbacks, Trestman sounded like he might be favoring Palmer by saying there’s no reason to apologize for a four-yard gain.

Yes, Mark, there is reason to apologize if you take the checkdown because you can’t throw the 15-yard back-shoulder bullet the way Clausen can.

Trestman’s statement gave rise to the thought that he’d rather have another Josh McCown instead of another Jay Cutler even though the Bears' offense and the entire NFL is built around vertical plays.

Turns out, he wants the quarterback who can use the entire playbook, not just the first 10 yards.

Now comes a scary truth about the backup competition: Each game was won by the man who played against the opponent’s third- and fourth-stringers.

The backup who played against the opponent’s second-string played worse, and from now on, Cutler’s backup will face first-stringers, some of whom went to the NFC Championship Game last season or might this season.

That brings us to the offensive line and Cutler’s instincts. Both need to be better than we saw Friday night.

The Seahawks sacked Cutler twice in the first half. If they had played the second half like it was a real game, then there was a legitimate fear that Cutler would’ve suffered his annual injury.

It’s not just better protection, however. Cutler needs to help himself by getting rid of the ball quicker.

He loves the highlight throw the way any quarterback with that arm would. But Trestman has stressed that he wants Cutler’s completion percentage to jump from 63 to 68, which is a bigger accomplishment than 5 percentage points sounds like and also is a function of Cutler’s willingness to take the first open receiver.

So, don’t apologize for a four-yard gain, Jay. You can throw the 15-yard back-shoulder bullet on the next play.